An American couple charged with the aggravated child trafficking and torture of one of their three foster children in Uganda are set to appear before a court in the Ugandan capital city of Kampala on Wednesday.
Accused of attracting, transporting and maintaining a foster son “for the purpose of exploitation,” Nicholas Spencer and his wife Mackenzie Leigh Mathias Spencer, both 32 years old, are expected to hear in the Buganda Road Court in Kampala the status of the ongoing probe into their case.
As the suspects are slated to appear before the court, Sputnik takes a look at the high-profile case, examining possible sentences, and the position of the couple's defense.
What charges are brought against the Spencers?
The Spencers were initially charged with the alleged torture of ten-year-old John Kayima, one of the three Ugandan children fostered by the US couple, on December 9, 2022. A few days later, the court announced an additional charge against the coupe, aggravated child trafficking.
Regarding the first charge, to which the couple pleaded not guilty, prosecutors cited the testimony of the Spencers’ neighbors in Naguru, a suburb in Kampala city, in addition to footage taken by neighbors of some incidents that took place between 2020 and December 2022. According to the Ugandan police, the Spencers “constantly tortured” Kayima, who went to a special needs school and is infected with HIV.
The neighbors and teachers at the school where the boy used to study told the police that Nicholas and Mackenzie Spencer kept the victim barefoot and “naked throughout the day,” and “would occasionally make him squat in an awkward position, with his head facing the floor and hands spread out widely.”
“He spent his nights on a wooden platform, without a mattress or beddings and was served cold meals from the fridge,” the Uganda Police Force said, adding, “We believe, the victim could have endured more severe acts of torture, away from the camera.”
According to the sheet of the aggravated child trafficking charge, the Spencers recruited, transported and kept the child through “abuse of position of vulnerability for purposes of exploitation.”
Kampala police claimed that the American couple kept three foster children and used them to raise charitable funds. Now the authorities are looking after the children.
What punishment does the couple face?
Under Ugandan laws, the charge of child torture carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
If found guilty of child trafficking, they could be sentenced to death.
What do the Spencers say?
The lawyer of the US couple slammed the charges as a “fishing expedition” by Ugandan authorities, arguing that the prosecutors have no evidence to support their case against the Spencers.
“Last time we were in court, the state said that inquiries are complete and yet today they added a new charge and said that inquiries are ongoing,” the attorney told the media in mid-December 2022. “It doesn’t make sense.”
The couple’s defense previously asked the court to release Nicholas and Mackenzie Spencer on bail, citing unspecified health problems that could not be treated in prison. However, their application for bail was denied by the court as prosecutors insisted that there were no diseases that could not be cured in the country's correctional system, adding that two US citizens could flee Uganda given the serious charges they are facing.
“They have no community or family ties in Uganda, and the offense with which they are charged currently is of grave nature attracting a penalty of life imprisonment, therefore their likelihood to abscond from bail is really, really high,” the prosecutors argued.
Foster family
The accused persons are said to have first arrived in Uganda from Spartanburg, South Carolina, US, in 2017 for humanitarian work, in particular activities “focused on women’s empowerment and education.”
They first lived in the city of Jinja, in the Eastern Region of Uganda, where they fostered three children from a Christian ministry called Welcome Ministry in Jinja in 2018.
Later, the foster parents moved with their children to Upper Naguru in Uganda’s capital city of Kampala, where they currently reside, after joining Motive Creation Agency, according to the Ugandan police.
Before quitting their jobs in Whittington, DC, in 2017 and moving to Uganda, Nicholas Spencer was a former congressional staffer, while his spouse Mackenzie was a healthcare consultant, according to US media.